The present invention relates to portable vises and, in particular, to a portable cable vise, with jaws designed to grip cables without damaging the cables, that can be easily mounted on the edges of vertically and horizontally extending structures commonly found in the field, such as but not limited to vehicle tailgates, the upper edges of cherry-picker personnel buckets and the like, while maintaining the portable cable vise in an upright or vertical orientation to enable the workers to easily work with cables held in the vise.
Companies, such as but not limited to electrical utility companies, telephone companies, and cable television companies, often have a need to work on large diameter power cables, telephone cables, fiber optic cables and the like in the field. These cables typically range in diameter from about one half of an inch to about two and one quarter inches in diameter and may be either insulated or uninsulated. These cables are normally run underground or overhead between towers. Currently, when these cables are being installed or repaired in the field, the cables are manually held by the workers while the cables are being spliced, insulation is being stripped from the cables, etc. Handling these heavy, large diameter cables manually while the cables are being installed or repaired is an awkward process and can be dangerous when working with overhead cables many feet above the ground. In addition, when a cable is cut the ends of the spirally wound strands of the cable can unravel or spring open causing problems in handling and working with the cable. Thus, there has been a need to provide a means in the field to safely and effectively handle these large diameter cables without damaging the cables, especially fiber optic cables whose strands can be easily damaged by crushing the strands.
The portable cable vise of the present invention provides a solution to the above problems. The portable cable vise of the present invention can be easily, quickly and firmly mounted on different support structures commonly found in the field, such as but not limited to vehicle tailgates, the upper edges of cherry-picker personnel buckets, and the like, so that the portable cable vise can be used to grip cables when working with the cables on the ground or in the air. The portable cable vise can be mounted on the edge of a horizontally or vertically extending support structure while maintaining the vise in an upright position and the jaws of the vise are designed to accommodate cables of different diameters and firmly grip those cables without crushing the cable strands.